They talk about not meeting their target for sales, but I have to make this argument:

The volt is just hard to get your hands on (in Canada anyway). It's not even available in my province. The nearest dealer that has any is at least a 12 hour drive from here. If you want to sell more of a new, edgy, technological car like that, you need to make them available to more people.

The Volt itself is not supposed to make $$.
It is strictly a proof of concept car-sorta' a prolonged test of the types of car that might be sold in greater numbers when/if fuel costs skyrocket, or if we have to decrease our CO2 production.
Of course more than 1/2 of our electricity is from coal burning plants,
But in the future we might get more from Nukes and wind farms

Sales don't matter AT ALL for GMs profitability.
The Sonic Cruze Malibu 1/2 ton pickups-they will drive profits.
It will be years before EVs become important in sales.
GM is just getting the jump on everyone else-much like they did in the early 90's
But $1.00 gas killed the 90's EV
Eventually electric cars of various sorts will be important-GM is looking to the future-
Toyota probably didn't make a dime from the Prius for at least the 1st five years.
Charlie